Don’t let ‘wrong surgery’ modifier mistakes stall your reimbursement.

You use modifier TC for the technical component of a test. So logically, you should use modifier PC for the professional component, right? Wrong. But many coders are making that mistake and causing their practices unnecessary denial hassles. Here’s what you need to know.

Get ‘Wrong Surgery’ Modifiers Right

When practitioners perform erroneous surgeries, CMS requires the hospital outpatient department, ambulatory surgical center (ASC), physician, or other entity to append one of the following three modifiers to codes for services related to the erroneous procedure effective Jan. 15, 2009:

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Find out what steps Congress must take to delay the much feared 21.2 percent pay cut.

If a new bill — already approved by the Senate — moves forward, you could have another six months before the 21.2 percent pay cut kicks in.

On May 10, the Senate approved the American Workers, State, and Business Relief Act of 2010 (HR 4213), which includes an extension of the freeze on the current conversion factor through Oct. 1. Currently, the conversion factor will rise by 21.2 percent on April 1.

Although no one wants to see payments diminish next month, physician advocacy organizations still aim for a more permanent fix to the payment formula rather than repeated last-minute votes to freeze the conversion factor year after year.

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In MSP cases, non-consult code for both payers may be best.

If you have payers who didn’t play follow-the-leader with Medicare in cutting out consult codes, you have a dilemma on your hands. You have to decide what to do when your physician performs a consult, the primary insurer pays you for the service, and Medicare is the secondary payer.

Map Out a Strategy From MLN Article

CMS announced the “Medicare Secondary Payer (MSP) will not pay for consults,” says Samantha Daily, billing specialist with a practice in Portland, Ore.

Recently published MLN Matters article MM6740 indicates the following: “In MSP cases, physicians and others must bill an appropriate E/M code for the services previously paid using the consultation codes [99241-99255, Office or other outpatient consultation …]. If the primary payer for the service continues to recognize consultation codes,” you should bill in one of the following two ways:

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Measuring total removal lengths is a no-no … here’s why.

Your ED physician removes a pair of benign lesions from the patient’s left thigh; you add the repair lengths and code based on those numbers. You’ve coded correctly … right?

Wrong: Many coders get tripped up by lesion removal codes, which are governed by different rules than lesion excision codes. Get the real lowdown on coding multiple lesion excisions right here, and you’ll get it right every time.

CPT, Experts Agree: Don’t Add Lengths

When your physician removes multiple lesions, “code for each individual lesion; this is not like laceration repairs, where you combine the length of all of the same body area/complexity wounds,” explains Sharon Richardson, RN, compliance officer at Emergency Groups’ Office in Arcadia, Calif.

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Find out which you can report separately: a tunneled or a non-tunneled line.

Question: What code should we bill when we remove a central venous pressure (CVP) line and insert a Hickman catheter at a different site?

New York Subscriber

Answer: You can’t determine the proper code based on type of catheter (such as CVP line or Hickman).

Selecting the proper code depends on the patient’s age, whether the surgeon places the catheter centrally or peripherally, where the catheter tip is at the end of placement, and whether the catheter is tunneled or non-tunneled.

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Knowing how to use add-on codes can net you up to $258 in additional reimbursement.

CPT is full of “add-on” codes, additions to minor and major surgical procedures as well as to E/M services. Fortunately for urology there are not many “add-on codes,” but that makes it essential for you to know the special rules that apply to these codes when you do have to use them. If you learn just a few main guidelines, you can gain the best possible reimbursement for your urologist’s procedures including all add-on codes.

Look for the ‘+’ Symbol

There’s an easy way to tell if a CPT code is designated as an add-on code…

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Attach your procedure notes and the OIG’s report to pack extra punch.

Even if you follow all of CMS’s rules in reporting modifier 25 (Significant, separately identifiable evaluation and management service by the same physician on the same day of the procedure or other service), your Medicare payer may sometimes still choose to deny your claim.

If you feel you deserve the pay for the EM service you performed, you should appeal the denial. Alice Kater, CPC, PCS, coder with Urology Associates of South Bend in Indiana, offers the following sample appeal letter (below) as an example of how she has challenged her payer to collect rightful reimbursement.

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Make sure your documentation supports the additional substantial complexity of the hernia repair and mesh.

Question: A patient presented for a colectomy for colon cancer. The physician also discovered that the patient had a ventral incarcerated hernia that required a complex repair using mesh. Because of the separate work, we reported 44140 and then reported 49561 with modifier 59. The payer denied the claim. Were we wrong to append modifier 59?

Mississippi Subscriber

Answer: You might think you can append modifier 59 (Distinct procedural service) to the hernia repair code and bill it separately. After all, the hernia repair seems to qualify as a different reason for surgery than the colectomy — for example, if the patient has a recurrent hernia. But modifier 59 tells the payer the hernia repair happened at a separate session, which isn’t true in your case.

If the physician’s documentation proves justification, you might try …

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